Monday, 31 March 2014

Human beings are
full of contradictions. We want what we don’t have. We get tired of what we
struggled to get. We say one thing but do another.

It’s not just people
who behave this way, throughout the universe things are happening that aren’t
supposed to be happening. We think we know how something works and then it does
something completely different.

We like patterns, we
like working out the rules and being able to predict events. But there’s always
an exception to the rule. An anomaly will arise. The unexpected will turn up
with alarming regularity. And when this happens our reaction is to take a
closer look. We are fascinated by contradiction and want to examine it for
answers, even when there are none to be had.

This urge is
powerful and is just as strong in the fictional world as it is in the real one.

Monday, 24 March 2014

A well-rounded
character who feels like a real person is obviously what we all want to write.
Sometimes this naturally occurs, maybe because the character is based on a real
person or on an archetype of the genre. In some cases they may be based on
another fictional character from a favourite book.

The writer feels
comfortable with writing about them because they know exactly who they’re
writing about.

There’s no reason
why that approach won’t work. Obviously there’s the danger of creating a cliché
or stereotype, but even then that can work if the story is strong enough.

If, however, you
want to write a character from the ground up, a character who is as real as any
person living, yet wholly your own creation, then there are three aspects you
need to know in depth: the physical, sociological and psychological.

Monday, 17 March 2014

Tension is an
important part of any story. You want the problems gripping your characters to
also grip your readers. But tension is not a one off thing that you can create
and leave to do its job.

If tension remains
at a steady state it decreases over time. If a guy is in a locked room waiting
for the killer to come back and finish the job, and he waits, and waits, then
he’s eventually going to stop freaking out. He might even get a little bored.

You either have to
face the problem (leading to some kind of resolution) or escalate the tension
in some way. But even then not all tension is created equal.

Monday, 10 March 2014

You’re writing your
story, maybe you’re a few days in or perhaps a few weeks, and suddenly you feel
the compulsion to do the dishes. Or the laundry. Or tidy up that closet. And
if, like me, you aren’t overly fond of housework or tedious chores, it may
occur to you that it’s rather odd that you now feel compelled to do something
you dislike rather than do the thing you’ve loved since you were a kid.

Not that writing
can’t be a frustrating endeavour, but why would you actually want to do that
menial job you usually find any excuse to avoid doing? Why not go do something
fun? Or nothing at all? Seems a bit strange, no?

There is in fact a
pretty simple reason why, and once you understand it, it can actually make it
easier to get your head back in the game.

Monday, 3 March 2014

You want readers to
feel like they’re in the world of your story. When the character enters a
place, you want the reader to feel like they too have entered that place.

How you do this
would seem fairly straightforward. You describe everything the character sees
and hears and smells and tastes and touches, right?

But you may have
noticed that while description of setting in a good book is immersive and
entertaining, when you write something like that in your own story it can often
feel longwinded and unengaging.

You paint a clear
picture of the world but it’s like you’re not actually in the picture, you’re
just viewing it from a distance. So how do you close that gap so the reader is
pulled into the setting rather than skimming over it?